LEGO Classic Space mining operation

LEGO Classic Space is still very much well and alive, with both old and young LEGO fans building light-gray and blue spaceships and space stations, with smiling LEGO Classic Space minifigures exploring distant planets. It is particularly interesting when LEGO Classic Space gets upgraded with newer LEGO pieces and advanced building techniques to bring them to the modern era (referred to as LEGO Neo-Classic Space). Today I wanted to show you an excellent diorama in LEGO Classic Space style, called the Tregatis VI Mining Operation. 🙂

According to the builder Brick Knight, Tregatis VI is an uninhabited planet located in the Pegasus galaxy. The explorers discovered that the planet contains a rare mineral that has great potential as an energy source. They have set up a mining operation on the planet to extract the ore and ship it back to Earth for refining. In the picture above you can see the entire mining facility and below we will look at it in more detail.

The buildings include a couple of large pods (one is used for living facilities and control of the base, and the other for vehicle maintenance and as a landing platform), separate landing platforms, a rocket launcher platform, and a couple of Stargate style portals for instant travel to distant places. All the buildings use the standard LEGO Classic Space colors; light-gray, blue, and translucent yellow, with translucent red and translucent green warning lights. While many of the pieces are the same as in the original LEGO Classic Space sets, there are also modern elements, like the blue shield pieces from the LEGO Nexo Knights sets. Looks like little Benny from The LEGO Movie is very happy to work at this base!

There are two type of vehicles at the Tregatis VI Mining Operation. Spaceships for long-distance travel, and land vehicles used for mining, transportation, etc. The spaceships all feature the classic triangle shape of the original LEGO Classic Space ships, with a light-gray and blue color combination, translucent-yellow windshields, and yellow and black bumblebee stripes. But they also have upgraded features, using more complex building techniques and new pieces to add interesting details.

The mining and other land vehicles also come with classic as well as upgraded features. I particularly like the third picture below with mining and transporting the translucent-green ore. The sideways building technique to create the opened surface of sand-colored ground is very effective.

The Tregatis VI Mining Operation is populated by smiling LEGO Classic Space minifigs wearing white, red, blue, yellow and black space-suits based on their duties, as well as a host of droids to help with running the facility. Even R2-D2 and C-3PO participates!

There is a lot more to see at this space station, so if you are interested, make sure you check out Brick Knight’s flickr gallery with more detailed images. And if you would like to start building in LEGO Classic Space style, I highly recommend getting the #70816 LEGO Movie Benny’s Spaceship. It gives you a very fun ship reminiscent of the old LEGO Classic Space Galaxy Explorer, as well as lots of pieces that match the style. It is no longer available directly from LEGO, but you can still get it on Amazon. And you might also consider the LEGO Space: Building the Future book by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard, which is full of LEGO Classic Space style creations you can use for inspiration. It’s one of my most favorite LEGO books.

What do you think? How do you like this LEGO Classic Space creation? Do you ever build in LEGO Classic Space style? Would you like to see more official LEGO sets bringing back LEGO Classic Space? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

Oh, good point about the landscape! Yes, the portal uses some interesting mosaic-building techniques using round plates. The technique was actually developed by someone else, but for the life of me I can’t remember who it was.